The bird has been coming back to the same place for three years now, computer services director Randy Dale said as he watched the docile bird snoozing outside his office window.

"He's my afternoon entertainment," Dale said. "He just sleeps up on the roof.

Carol Mitchell, a wildlife expert with the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, identified the bird as a great blue heron.

"They are beautiful large birds that hang around the playa lakes to fish. They are solitary except during breeding season, and not uncommon around town," Mitchell said.

Ardea herodias, also known as "Big Cranky," is blue-gray with black stripes above each eye that extend as a plume to the back of the neck. The birds have long, large yellow bills and long legs and necks.

They hunt for fish by treading slowly through the water with their necks stretched out and forward.

If the fish is small, the heron will swallow it whole.

If the fish is too big, the heron will take the fish ashore in its beak and kill it by beating it on the ground.